by Amira Hass The noise in recent days from the Israeli lobby against the release of Palestinian prisoners was the opposite of the limited interest the Palestinian public was showing before the release early Wednesday. But the media in the Palestinian Authority was trying to create an atmosphere of excitement and joy - they’re laying on the nationalist songs, interviews with the parents of prisoners and interviews with the people who have made a living from the “prisoners file” for 20 years. The official spokesmen were asking once again that this be depicted as a big achievement for the PA, especially for President Mahmoud Abbas - another step on the way to ending the occupation. But the masses’ general apathy hasn’t waned. There were a number of reasons. The natural joy over the release of 26 longtime prisoners doesn’t change the fact that the Palestinians are troubled by an abundance of problems that touch every family and individual. And everyone knows that these problems aren’t about to be solved. Here are some examples:

the fate of the Palestinian refugees who remain in Syria or are among the more than two million people who have been displaced; Israel’s success in ignoring the international position and continuing to build in the settlements and expropriate land; the dangers awaiting olive pickers and farmers in general from the settlers; salaries liable not to be paid next month; the social, political and economic disintegration of East Jerusalem, which is being cut off from the West Bank; the blockade of Gaza that has only become more serious since the coup in Egypt; and -the Palestinian political schism whose end is nowhere in sight. Another reason for the absence of rejoicing was the broad opposition to relaunching the peace talks with Israel under the continued construction in the settlements and the large doubts about the talks’ results. Even those who supported a relaunch of the negotiations know that the chances of an acceptable agreement are slim. It’s clear to everyone that the return to futile talks was the price the PA paid for the prisoner release - prisoners of war in Palestinian eyes - 20 years late. Some people even think that this was a too high a price for giving up on the aggressive diplomatic channel at the United Nations - but they can’t say it in public. They don’t want to create the impression that the fate of the prisoners and the pain of their families aren’t important to them. (Hamas managed to cover up the very high price - in human life, wounded and economic damage - that the Palestinians paid for the release of the prisoners in the Gilad Shalit deal. They don’t talk about this openly either.) And another reason: The releases at the beginning of the Oslo process were understood as the beginning of the end of the arrests and the granting of freedom to thousands of Palestinians every year. This is no longer so. Everyone knows that within three days after the release of the 26 prisoners, the Israeli security apparatus will “compensate” itself and fill the quota with more Palestinian detainees. Just this Monday, soldiers in Hebron arrested two more members of the Palestinian Legislative Council from the Hamas Change and Reform slate in the West Bank: Nizar Ramadan, 53, and Mohammed Bader, 55. In doing so the number of legislative council members jailed in Israel reached 15 - nine of whom are under extended administrative detention. Also Monday, another 20 or so Palestinians were arrested throughout the West Bank, including students from Hebron and Nablus. The Israeli policy of arrests is seen as part of the apparatus of regular repression - institutionalized and planned - that is inherent to a foreign ruler that imposes itself on a population. The release of a few prisoners does not signal a change in the Israeli approach. Amid the apathy concerning the prisoners, the PA is trying to revive the issue abroad. On Sunday, in South Africa’s Robben Island prison - which has been converted into a museum - in the same cell where Nelson Mandela was held, the “Free Marwan Barghouti and All Palestinian Political Prisoners” international campaign was launched. (The word order is first Barghouti and then all the prisoners.) Representatives of Fatah, the PA and Palestinian human rights groups came to South Africa for the launch of the campaign, along with Barghouti’s wife Fadwa Barghouti. On hand were members of the African National Congress, and at the head of the group was Ahmed Kathadra, the 84-year-old former prisoner who served 26 years of a life sentence and hard labor handed down during the apartheid era. Mandela, Kathadra and many others had committed the crime of belonging to the African National Congress’ military wing. The campaign is conveying: Just as South African prisoners who were opponents of apartheid were released as negotiations were under way (and even before they were officially under way), the Palestinian prisoners must be released. In today’s Israel there’s a kind of apartheid similar to what prevailed in those days in South Africa. And Barghouti is the Mandela of the Palestinians who must be released to advance the negotiations for change. Abroad this may sound good, but it’s another reason for the Palestinians who have stayed home not to celebrate. Their doubts about their leaders both inside and outside the prisons runs very deep.

"Ordering the Palestinian prisoners' release has been one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make as prime minister," Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday, following the political and public firestorm created by the Israel government's decision to forge ahead with the second phase of the goodwill gesture assured to the Palestinian Authority ahead of the resumption of the peace talks in August. As the stalled peace talks resumed, Israel pledged to release 104 Palestinian prisoners, in four stages. The second phase of the plan included 26 prisoners who are released on Tuesday night. "I am sure that any prime minister who has ever had to make a similar decision in the past has agonized over it as well, " Netanyahu said. "My heart goes out to the bereaved families. This decision was a necessary evil, dictated by the reality we live in. We must navigate a complex international arena that presents us with multiple challenges. It mandates that we consider various factors and do what is best for Israel." According to an Israel Radio report, Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz added that from a strategic perspective, the price of a settlement construction freeze is much higher than the price of releasing prisoners.

Israel transferred five Palestinian detainees to a Gaza border crossing from the Ofer detention center in the occupied West Bank late Tuesday, ahead of their expected release. Twenty-six prisoners were due to be released late Tuesday as part of a four-stage deal to coincide with a return to peace negotiations in July. All 26 were convicted of killing Israelis, with most of the attacks occurring before the 1993 Oslo Accords. A first group of 26 prisoners was freed on Aug. 13. In Israel, the move to release the second group has sparked tensions within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, and around 2,000 Israelis rallied outside Ofer prison on Monday chanting “Death to terrorists!” and raising placards reading: “Are we crazy? We’re releasing murderers.” Among the demonstrators was Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel, a hardliner from the far-right nationalist Jewish Home party, who vowed to ramp up settlement construction in response to the release.

Released Palestinian prisoner, Ahmed Al Damone, center, arrives at a checkpoint at the entrance of Beit Hanoun between north of Gaza Strip and Israel

(Israel) freed 26 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday, the second of four groups to be released as part of a deal that set in motion the current Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Jubilant celebrations erupted in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, where the prisoners are seen as heroes who fought for independence and were received by their families and Palestinian leaders. The release was part of an agreement brokered by the US secretary of

state, John Kerry, bringing Israel and the Palestinians back to the table for peace talks that had been paralysed since 2008. In all 104 people are to be released in four rounds over the coming months.

In the West Bank and Gaza the mood was boisterous as hundreds of relatives and well-wishers welcomed the prisoners home after many had spent more than 20 years behind bars.

Throngs of people rushed toward the five prisoners released to Gaza, hoisting them on their shoulders, waving Palestinian flags and dancing to blaring music. Relatives held signs that read: "We will never forget our heroes." More than 2,000 people welcomed the 21 prisoners released to the West Bank, who were greeted at a ceremony by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah.

Hazem Shubair, who was jailed in 1994 for the death of an Israeli, according to the Israeli Prison Service, was overwhelmed upon his release to Gaza. "I am speechless," he said. "Thanks to God. God is greater than the aggressors." Earlier his brother Tayser called Hazem a "freedom fighter".

Thousands of Palestinians have been held in Israeli prisons since Israel's capture of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 war. Many were jailed on charges ranging from throwing rocks to killing civilians in bombings, shootings and other attacks. The Palestinians want those territories for their future state.

Standing alongside the newly freed prisoners, Abbas said a final peace deal with Israel was contingent on the release of prisoners held in its jails. "There will be no final agreement without the release of all the prisoners," he said.

Israel's supreme court earlier rejected an appeal that sought to cancel the prisoner release. An organisation of bereaved families behind the appeal has said it fears the prisoners will return to violence once freed.

Highlighting opposition to the move, about 50 Israelis protested outside the West Bank prison where the inmates were held ahead of the release. They raised signs reading "Death to murderers" and burned keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian headscarves. More than a thousand people had demonstrated against the release on Monday.

The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) released 26 Palestinian prisoners, who were serving life sentences, after midnight Tuesday. Five of those released arrived at Beit Hanun (Erez) crossing, north of the Gaza Strip, at dawn Wednesday to a popular welcome ceremony. Dozens of relatives waited for the released captives despite the delay in their arrival, waving flags and banners of various factions. Hamas, in a terse statement, welcomed the release of prisoners, renewing its pledge to work for the release of all prisoners. The release of those prisoners was part of a deal between the PA in Ramallah and Israel to renew negotiations that also included PA’s approval not to join international institutions and to give a blind eye to Israeli settlement activity. Meanwhile, one of the released prisoners in Jenin refugee camp told the PIC reporter that prisoners were facing a ferocious Israeli campaign against them. Haza’a Al-Saadi, who served 28 years in Israeli occupation jails, said that the Palestinian people should unite in support of prisoners and their release. Six of the released prisoners returned to their homes in Jenin city and refugee camp at dawn Wednesday and were accorded a hero’s welcome.

The Israeli government has announced that it intends to build additional 1500 units for Jewish settlers in the illegal settlement of Ramat Shlomo, in occupied East Jerusalem. Abbas: “We never accepted the release of detainees in return for accepting Israel’s settlement activities”.

The announcement came after Israel released 26 veteran Palestinian detainees, as part of diplomatic talks between Tel Aviv and the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli Military Radio has reported that Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Interior Minister, Gideon Sa'ar, made the decision.

The decision did not come as a surprise as Netanyahu and his coalition partners said that they would build more settlements in return for freeing Palestinian political prisoners, and alleged that President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to this formula.

It also comes to appease his fundamentalist coalition partners who are angered by the release of the veteran detainees.

Welcoming the released detainees in the central West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas said that the claims and allegations that the Palestinian Authority accepted the release in return for not objecting to Israeli settlement activities, are false, and have no grounds.

“Settlements are illegitimate”, Abbas said, “Settlements are violations of International Law”.

Abbas also said that the P.A would continue to act on all levels to secure the release of every detainee held by Israel.

“There will never no agreements while even a single detainee is behind bars”, Abbas said, “We are determined to achieve this noble goal”.

26 Detainees Released Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, various officials and thousands of Palestinians welcomed 21 veteran Palestinian detainees, released from Israeli prisons, as part of diplomatic moves to ensure “continuation of direct talks”. Five Gaza Strip detainees were sent to the Erez Terminal.

Media sources in Ramallah have reported that Abbas, and Prime Minister, Rami Hamdallah, personally welcomed the freed detainees, while thousands cheered and chanted for the liberation of Palestine and the release of all detainees held by Israel.

Thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip also gathered at the Erez terminal, and welcomed the five freed Gaza strip detainees. Leaders of Fateh and Hamas movements, along with leaders of different factions, social and religious figures, and thousands of residents, welcome the freed detainees in Gaza, and chanted for the liberation of all detainees.

Back in mid-August, Israel released the 26 veteran detainees, held since before Oslo; 14 of them are from Gaza and 12 from the West Bank.

Tel Aviv will be releasing more detainees on December 29, and on March 28 2014.

The release is part of an agreement, mediated by the United States, to ensure the resumption and continuation of peace talks that were halted for three years due to ongoing Israeli violations, including invasions, arrests, and ongoing settlement activities.

The agreement is meant to ensure the release of all 104 detainees held by Israel since before 1993 on four stages. VideoVideo

(Israel) freed 26 veteran prisoners to the occupied West Bank and Gaza on Wednesday, alongside US-brokered peace talks. Local Maan News Agency reported that Twenty-one prisoners arrived in Ramallah shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday, after Israel released them in a gesture to support the peace process. Five others crossed into their native Gaza.

The 21 former prisoners from the West Bank arrived by bus to President Mahmoud Abbas' compound in Ramallah, where they were met by dignitaries and supporters.

The release of the 26 prisoners was part of a four-stage deal to coincide with the PLO's return to peace negotiations in July. All 26 were convicted of killing Israelis, with most of the attacks occurring before the 1993 Oslo Accords. A first group of 26 prisoners was freed on Aug. 13. In Ramallah, freed prisoner Riziq Salah from al-Khader near Bethlehem said his happiness to be free was overshadowed by a deep sadness for cellmates who were left behind. "I lived with my wife five years but with my cellmates, I have lived 21 years seeing them 24 hours a day," he told Palestine TV by telephone. In Israel, the move to release the second group has sparked tensions within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, and around 2,000 Israelis rallied outside Ofer prison on Monday chanting "Death to terrorists!" and raising placards reading: "Are we crazy? We're releasing murderers." Among the demonstrators was Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel, a hardliner from the far-right nationalist Jewish Home party, who vowed to ramp up settlement construction in response to the release. Media reports suggest Israel is planning to announce the construction of 1,500 new housing units in the coming days, up to two thirds of them in annexed East Jerusalem. There are still 5,007 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, including 137 administrative detainees, 12 women and 180 children, according to prisoners support group Addameer.

Families and supporters of Palestinian detainees held by Israel celebrated tonight’s promised release of 26 prisoners during a weekly sit-in Monday morning.The regular event, which began in 1995, brings comrades, friends and relatives of Palestinian prisoners together in the courtyard of the International Committee of the Red Cross’ Gaza City office.“I and my family can’t believe Hazem is going to be released,” Taiseer Qassem Shubeir said after the event.Shubeir is the brother of of Hazem Qassem Taher Shubeir, one five prisoners from the Gaza Strip scheduled for release.“We had lost hope,” Shubeir said. “Now all the Israelis’ excuses have been broken. We are unbelievably happy, and the whole family is waiting nervously.”The expected release of 26 detainees follows an earlier release that also included 26 prisoners, with 14 from the Gaza Strip, on 14 August.Rallies have been planned to the five Gaza Strip detainees, both on their arrival at the Erez checkpoint in Beit Hanoun, expected around midnight, and later in their cities and neighborhoods.“Families and supporters of the detainees will go to Erez,” said Osama al-Wuhaidi, a spokesman for the Hussam Association, a Gaza-based society of current and former Palestinian detainees. “After seven o’clock, people will start gathering by the checkpoint.”“Everybody in Khan Younis is already celebrating,” said Shubeir. “I feel like Hazem is the son not only of our family, but of the whole Palestinian people.”The Israeli government has said that the releases, part of its current negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), will free 104 detainees over nine months of talks.These will include all Palestinians detained before the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994 and charged by Israeli with offenses before the 1993 signing of the Oslo Accords, according to Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.Israel first agreed to release these prisoners in its 1999 Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum with the PLO.

Around three thousand Israeli settlers demonstrated in front of the Ofer prison, west of Ramallah, on Monday night against the planned release of Palestinian prisoners. The Israeli occupation authorities are scheduled to release 26 Palestinian prisoners at midnight Tuesday as the second batch of prisoners to be released according to an American-brokered agreement for the return of PA-Israeli negotiations. Ma’ariv website said that the demonstrators intend to form a human chain around the prison to prevent the release of those prisoners. It said that the demonstrators carried photos of those killed in Palestinian resistance attacks, and demanded a halt to the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Palestinian Minister of Detainees, Issa Qaraqe’, stated that Israel will be releasing the second phase of detainees, 26, held by since before the First Oslo Agreement of 1993, tonight by midnight.

Qaraqe’ said that 21 of the detainees are from the West Bank, and five from Gaza, and added that they will be sent to the Ofer prison, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, before being released.

The Minister added that the detainees would then be sent to the Presidential Headquarters in Ramallah, where President Mahmoud Abbas intends to personally welcome them, along with several political, social and religious figures.

Qaraqe’ called on the families to head to the headquarters in Ramallah, to welcome their released sons, and to refrain from gathering near the Ofer Israeli prison.

He added that none of the detainees would be deported, or sent into exile, adding that all detainees from the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, will be sent home.

Back in mid-August, Israel released the 26 veteran detainees, held since before Oslo; 14 of them are from Gaza and 12 from the West Bank.

Tel Aviv will be releasing more detainees on December 29, and on March 28 2014.

This was part of an agreement, mediated by the United States, to ensure the resumption of peace talks that were halted for three years due to ongoing Israeli violations, including invasions, arrests, and ongoing settlement activities.

The agreement is meant to ensure the release of all 104 detainees held by Israel since before 1993 on four stages. The Ahrar Center for Detainees Studies and Human Rights has reported that 25 of the 26 detainees are serving life terms, and one was serving a 28-year term.

The longest serving of the released detainees is Issa Abed-Rabbo, from Bethlehem; he was kidnapped on October 21, 1984. Six of them were taken prisoner in 1985, two in 1986, two in 1990, two in 1991, seven in 1992, three in 1993, and three in 1994.

Fuad Al-Khoffash, a former detainee, researcher, and the head of Ahrar center, said that the worst issue about this deal is that Israel is in full control of naming the released detainees, an issue that left the families facing agony and heartache not knowing whether their sons will be included.

Samidoun congratulates the Palestinian people and the prisoners’ families on the release of every prisoner who walks out of the doors of the occupation prisons, and today, the release of 26 veteran prisoners. We did not previously address the announcement that prisoners would be released because Israel has shown, time and again, that it regularly reneges on agreements with Palestinians and particularly with prisoners, and manipulates the issue of the prisoners – the over 5000 hostages behind bars – in an attempt to barter the lives and freedom of the prisoners for Palestinian concessions on land and rights. The 104 prisoners whose release has been announced, allegedly in stages of 26 prisoners at a time, conditioned upon what Israel has labeled “progress” in the negotiations, are pre-Oslo prisoners, arrested prior to the implementation of the Oslo Declaration of Principles and the establishment of the PA on May 4, 1994. These prisoners have been categorized as “abandoned” by the newly established Palestinian Authority from the time of Oslo’s signing in 1993. These prisoners’ release have been promised on multiple occasions, including in the Sharm el-Sheikh negotiations memorandum of 1999, which noted that “The Government of Israel shall release Palestinian and other prisoners who committed their offences prior to September 13, 1993, and were arrested prior to May 4, 1994.” The years since Oslo in 1993 have been years of unfulfilled promises, for the prisoners as for Palestinians as a whole. Repeatedly, the release of Palestinian hostages has been held out as a “confidence-building” or “goodwill” measure. However, these same time periods have been characterized by mass arrests, nighttime raids, the wide use of administrative detention without charge or trial, and ongoing mass imprisonment. As Addameer notes, “Indeed, over 23,000 Palestinians have been released since 1993 as “goodwill measures” during various negotiations and peace talks. However, in that same period, at least 86,000 Palestinians have been arrested, including children, women, disabled persons and university students.” Many of those arrested are former prisoners who were released; the re-arrest of freed prisoners has become a given in any discussion of such releases. The Israeli cabinet (as noted by Addameer) included in its agreement to this release that “The State of Israel reserves the right to take any means necessary against any of the released prisoners if they commit any terrorist and hostile activities as well as returning them to serve the remainder of their sentence, as will be decided by the relevant authorities.” Over 12 prisoners from the prisoner exchange in October 2011 currently are threatened with the re-imposition of their sentences. This phrase means that the prisoners are not released but instead paroled, and can be rearrested at any time at the whim of the occupation. It must be noted that Israeli definitions of hostile activities include participation in demonstrations and marches, “incitement” in speeches and writings, and membership or affiliation with Palestinian political parties. Israel’s conditioning of the release of the 104 prisoners on the grounds of progress in the negotiations is particularly dangerous. It is clear that the Israeli state considers “progress” to be the building of settlements, expropriation of Palestinian land, and concessions of Palestinian inalienable rights, including the right of return. Palestinian prisoners cannot and will not be used as a bargaining chip on the table of negotiations. They have fought with dignity inside the occupation’s prisons for decades, during which time the so-called “peace process” has accrued no benefits to Palestinian prisoners and indeed, has seen the conditions of confinement deteriorating and under continual pressure to undermine the achievements of the prisoners’ movements over the years. The heroic Palestinian prisoners will not be used as hostages to silence the Palestinian opposition to negotiations or to broker the concession of inalienable Palestinian rights. Those who marched against the negotiations in Ramallah – and were assaulted and attacked by PA police for challenging those negotiations – include former prisoners and the family members of prisoners and the organizers of countless marches and rallies in support of the hunger strikers and the prisoners’ movement. Since Oslo, the so-called “peace process” has brought neither peace nor justice to Palestinian prisoners or the Palestinian people as a whole. On the contrary, the struggle of Palestinian prisoners, through hunger strikes, political leadership, and continued dignity, strength and political commitment – has always indicated an alternative path of steadfastness in the face of a relentless occupying power. Welcome to the released prisoners, heroes of the battle for freedom. We will not rest until every one of your sisters and brothers is free, including the brave hunger strikers, the suffering ill prisoners, and the Palestinian children behind bars.

The Israeli Ministerial Cabinet held a meeting on Sunday, to discuss the release of 26 Palestinian detainees as part of direct talks with the Palestinian Authority, and determined the names of the detainees.

The 26 are detainees who have been imprisoned by Israel since before the first Oslo Agreement of 1994.

Those detainees spent between 19 -28 years in Israel prisons, five of them are from Gaza. They will be released this coming Tuesday.

The announcement came after the Legislative Committee of the Knesset turned down a proposed bill filed by Israeli Member of Knesset, Orit Strock, demanding a legislation that would prevent the release of Palestinian political prisoners.

Israeli media sources have reported that eight ministers, including four of the Likud Party of Benjamin Netanyahu, voted against the proposed bill, while only ministers of the Jewish Home and Israel Our Home fundamentalist parties voted for it.

Nine of the 26 detainees were taken prisoner between the years 1984 and 1986. The rest were taken prisoner in the period between 1990 and 1994.

23 of them have been sentenced to more than 99 years, while the remaining three are serving terms that range between 28 and 38 years.

After direct peace talks were resumed, Israel released, on August 14, 26 veteran detainees, held before the first Oslo Agreement, and agreed to release the second phase on November 29, a third phase on December 29, and a fourth on March 28 2014.

This was part of an agreement, mediated by the United States, to ensure the resumption of peace talks that were halted for three years due to ongoing Israeli violations, including invasions, arrests, and ongoing settlement activities.

The agreement is meant to ensure the release of all 104 detainees held by Israel since before 1993 on four stages.

Israel will release 32 veteran prisoners on Tuesday in conjunction with ongoing peace negotiations, a Palestinian Authority official said.

Undersecretary of the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs Ziad Abu Ain said that the names of the 32 long-term prisoners will be announced on Sunday, and that they will be formally greeted when they are released on Tuesday.

PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Qaraqe said that a total of 78 prisoners - all of whom have been in Israeli jails since 1994 or earlier - would be released by March of 2014.

Prior to the beginning of renewed peace negotiations, Israel announced that it would release a total of 104 Palestinian prisoner in stages. It released a batch of 26 prisoners in August after the negotiations began.

Peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians were relaunched in July under the auspices of the United States after nearly three years of impasse.

The internationally recognized Palestinian territories of which the West Bank and East Jerusalem form a part have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.

Israeli daily, Maariv, has reported that the Israeli cabinet will be holding a vote on a new law meant to prevent the government from releasing Palestinian political prisoners. The votes only comes a few days before Israel implements second phase of releasing detainees.

The Jewish Home party, a fundamentalist coalition partner of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, presented the proposal.

The timing comes just as Israel prepares to release some Palestinian detainees by the end of this meant as part of the efforts to “boost direct talks with the Palestinians”.

Jewish Party officials said the meeting between Israeli Chief Negotiator, Tzipi Livni, and her Palestinian counterpart, Dr. Saeb Erekat, as well as the rest of the negotiations teams, will not be able to achieve any progress.

It added that Netanyahu and his government will act on boosting and escalating settlement construction and expansion activities in the occupied West Bank, and occupied Jerusalem.

Leader of the Jewish Home Party, Naftali Bennett, criticized head of the Hatnuah Party, former Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, for what he called “supporting the release of Palestinian political prisoners”, and for heading the talks with the Palestinian side.

Bennett said he hopes Likud Party members, the party of Benjamin Netanyahu, would support him, and vote for the new law preventing the release of Palestinian detainees.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Minister of Detainees, Issa Qaraqe’, said that the second phase of detainees’ release would be conducted on October 29, while the third phase will be implemented on December 29, then March 28 2014.

He affirmed that the release of political prisoners does not depend on the progress of direct peace talks between Tel Aviv and Ramallah.

His statements contradict statements of Israeli officials who said the release of any detainee is dependent on the progress of direct talks, and the situation on the ground.

Palestinian Minister of Detainees, Issa Qaraqe’, stated Monday [October 21, 2013] that Israel will be releasing the second phase of Palestinian detainees on the agreed upon time, October 29. The release is part of an agreement to release all detainees held before 1993.

Qaraqe’ added that the release is part of incentives to ensure the continuation of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The talks were resumed, away from the media, under direct American mediation.

Israel was supposed to release all detainees, held before the first Oslo Peace Agreement was signed in 1993, but failed to do so.

After direct peace talks were resumed, Israel released, on August 14, 26 veteran detainees, held before the first Oslo Agreement, and agreed to release the second phase on November 29, a third phase on December 29, and a fourth on March 28 2014.

This was part of an agreement, mediated by the United States, to ensure the resumption of peace talks that were halted for three years due to ongoing Israeli violations, including invasions, arrests, and ongoing settlement activities.

The agreement is meant to ensure the release of all 104 detainees held by Israeli since before 1993 on four stages.

“The Israelis told us they will conduct the second phase on October 29”, Qaraqe’ said, “But they did not give us any lists yet, they also refused to allow us to participate in naming the detainees to be released”.

Despite the resumption of talks, Israel soldiers continued their violations, invasions, arrests, and the demolition of Palestinian homes and property, leading to dozens of casualties, including several fatalities.

Furthermore, extremist Israeli settlers escalated their attacks against the Palestinians, their farmlands and orchards, their homes and property, and against Islamic and Christian holy sites, and graveyards.

Ibrahim Baroud joined his mother, Ghalia Baroud, or Um Ibrahim, at Gaza’s weekly sit-in for Palestinian prisoners, which she co-founded, on Monday morning.

Baroud, a former Palestinian detainee, was captured by Israeli forces on 9 April 1986, at the age of 23. He was held for 27 years, including seven in solitary confinement.Um Ibrahim launched the vigil in the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) courtyard in 1995 with Handoumeh Wishah, or Um Jaber, the mother of four detainees, including Jaber Wishah, who was held for over 14 years.Wishah, a physics lecturer and a political and military leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was captured by Israeli forces on 5 June 1985. They released him on 9 September 1999, along with 198 other detainees, in partial implementation of the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization five days earlier.“I had this idea to hold a vigil with photographs of the prisoners, to make sure they were not forgotten,” Um Jaber told the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) in 2008.“It was just the two of us standing outside the ICRC the first time – but we knew the next week there would be three or four of us, and then, slowly, more mothers would come.”Um Ibrahim celebrated her son’s freedom on 8 April 2013 after his completion of an Israeli military court’s sentence for membership in Palestinian Islamic Jihad and participation in its armed resistance.The timing of his release, on a Monday morning, was convenient, as Baroud made his first stop in the Gaza Strip, before his home in the Jabalia refugee camp, at the ICRC.Previously, Israeli forces barred Umb Ibrahim from visiting her son for 16 years, first due to unspecified “security reasons,” then as part of a complete ban on family visits from the Gaza Strip imposed on 6 June 2007.The ADDAMEER Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association said that “the absolute prohibition on family visits is designed to demoralize and punish prisoners’ families, and by extension the general population in Gaza, for their political choices in 2006 and for the June 2006 capture of Gilad Shalit, making the policy a clear case of collective punishment, a war crime for which Israel should be held responsible.”In 2007, prior to the ban, Um Ibrahim received approval for one visit, but turned back after Israeli forces demanded she submit to a strip search.“I finally got permission to visit him in jail in Israel last year, and the ICRC escorted me to Erez Crossing,” she told the PCHR. “But the Israelis ordered me to strip down to my underwear, and I refused. So they sent me back to Gaza.”“They [the Israelis] had seen everything, even my bones,” she added. ”They claimed it was for security – but I am entitled to protect my dignity and my rights.”The Israel measures sparked a month of protests by Palestinian detainees in April 2010 and a mass hunger strike in April and May 2012, which finally ended the five-year ban on Gaza Strip visits.“All Palestinians are dangerous for them [Israelis],” Um Ibrahim told Le Monde before her son’s release, which she called “a national wedding and a popular happiness.”At the beginning of September, Israeli forces held 5,007 Palestinian political prisoners, according to ADDAMEER. 400 were from the Gaza Strip.Many of them remain unable to receive visits from their families because of “security” claims, an ongoing ban on visits by Gaza Strip children ten and older, and other Israeli policies.Hundreds of their relatives and supporters continue to gather in the ICRC every Monday morning, week after week, eighteen years later.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas headed for Europe on Monday on a mission to increase international pressure on Israel to halt settlement construction.

According to Maariv newspaper, Abbas' trip will take him to Germany, Italy and Belgium, where he will meet with heads of state and push for them to increase pressure on Israel to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank.

Sources in the PA told Maariv that Abbas set up the European trip in response to the Israeli calls to cut off the US-brokered peace talks and rethink the prisoner releases.

The newspaper added that Abu Mazen "Abbas" and the Palestinian leadership hear the opinions in Israel that are talking about the possibility of freezing the talks because of recent events, and they are already preparing an alternative plan — appealing to the United Nations institutes with the goal of winning international recognition for Palestinian state."

The newspaper also added that Abbas was going to Europe to ask for financial aid amid a fiscal crisis in the PA.

Abbas will also stresses during his trip that he is determined to continue talks with Israel; although he will tell the European leaders there has been no significant progress so far.

(Israel) rejected a request by the Palestinian and American governments that the planned release of a second group of Palestinian prisoners be moved up by two and a half weeks, according to Haaretz newspaper. Israel agreed in July to a four-stage release of 104 Palestinian prisoners in the Israel jails detained before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.

The first group of prisoners was released in August, just after talks between the two sides restarted.

The second group of some 25 prisoners was slated to be released on October 29, but the Palestinian Authority asked Israel to release the prisoners in time for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha next week.

Netanyahu has faced pressure from hawkish ministers to delay or cancel the prisoner release in the wake of a series of incidents in the West Bank in recent weeks, including the killing of two Israeli soldiers and the attack that wounded a nine-year-old girl in the settlement of Psagot last Saturday.

Netanyahu has rejected the request and planned to release the prisoners on schedule.

Ahrar center for prisoners' studies and human rights said that there are 86 Palestinians from the 1948 occupied lands serving different prison sentences in Israel's jails.

Ahrar center stated, in a report, that 14 Palestinians of those detainees have been in jail before the signing of the Oslo accords agreement, and 13 of them are serving life sentences.

The center noted that the Palestinian prisoners, despite their Israeli-issued blue IDs, suffer from racial discrimination and the jailers do not treat them fairly as they do with Israeli prisoners, affirming that the Israeli prison administrations impose restrictions on the Palestinian detainees, especially with regard to their visit rights and their access to basic needs.

It added that the Israeli regime also refuses to release those prisoners as part of any swap deal with the Palestinians, appealing to the Palestinian authority and human rights groups to pay special attention to the issue of the Palestinian prisoners living in the 1948 occupied lands.

The liberated prisoner Nazih Abu Aoun said that the prisoners have lost the most effective way for their release due to the PA persecution of the resistance. He stressed that the Palestinian prisoners refuse their release through humiliating negotiations, criticizing the PA decision not to go to the ICC.

The liberated prisoner, who was recently released after 28 months in administrative detention, said that prisoners demand their freedom with dignity and reject indignity as a price for their freedom in reference to prisoners' release in return of resumption of futile talks .

Abou Aoun has criticized the PA cancel to pursue the Israeli crimes in the ICC, calling for the release of all Palestinian prisoners.

He stressed that the Palestinian prisoners need effective campaigning for their release and not only a show of sympathy.

He pointed to the PA's double standard policy in dealing with liberated prisoners, where many of them have been re-arrested by PA forces due to their political affiliation.

The second batch of the long-serving prisoners will be released on October 29th, said Ramallah minister of prisoners' Affairs Issa Qaraqe. Qaraqe said Friday during a meeting with a number of the prisoners’ relatives that the third batch will be released on December 29th, while the fourth on March 28th , 2014.

All long-serving prisoners detained before the signing of Oslo Accords in May 1994 will be released as the agreement concluded by Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel.

The Israeli occupation authorities released in the middle of August 26 prisoners as the first batch out of 104 prisoners in conjunction with the resumption of negotiations between the PA and the Israeli occupation after a 3-year-long stalemate.

The minister stressed that the release of prisoners is not linked to the development in the negotiations and that no prisoner will be deported away from home.

Ahrar Center for Prisoners’ Studies and Human Rights documented 250 detentions in August alone, 5 from the Gaza Strip and 245 from the occupied West Bank.